Honore de Balzac Quotes

In romance, we feel the need to zoom in and expound on our partner's foibles in intimate detail; in friendship, we tend to do the opposite, avoiding confrontation through fear, lethargy or both.

A lot of cases, what makes you an interesting and complex person makes you a really horrible person to be with romantically.

Sometimes love is calm and easy and sometimes it's just plain dirty.

Oh yes, we're going to brawl, baby. Over you. Again.

Love begins like a triolet and ends like a college yell.

He'd never had to make the adjustments and compromises other people accepted early in their romantic careers; never had a chance to learn the lesson that Sarah taught him everyday--that beauty was only a part of it, and not even the most important part, that there were transactions between people that occurred on some mysterious level beneath the skin, or maybe even beyond the body.

The only time that love is an easy game is when two other people are playing it.

Falling in love is great but being in love is a disaster

Russian ladies, for the most part, cherish only Platonic love, without mingling any thought of matrimony with it; and Platonic love is exceedingly embarrassing.

In love quarrels the party that loves the most is always most willing to acknowledge the greater fault.

Then there is the usual scene when lovers are excited with each other, quarrels, entreaties, reproaches, and then fondling reconcilement.

Of course, there would always be arguments. That is the nature of Woman. They like the mutual exchange of dirty laundry, a bit of screaming, a bit of dramatics. Then an exchange of vows.

When a girl uses six derogatory adjectives in her attempt to paint the portrait of the loved one, it means something. One may indicate a merely temporary tiff. Six is big stuff.

To me, marriage is a dead thing. It is an institution, and you cannot live in an institution; only mad people live in institutions. It is a substitute for love. Love is dangerous: to be in love is to be in a storm, constantly. You need courage and you need awareness, and you are to be ready for anything. There is no security in love; love is insecure. Marriage is a security: the registry office, the police, the court are behind it. The state, the society, the religion - they are all behind it. Marriage is a social phenomenon. Love is individual, personal, intimate.

Quarrels in France strengthen a love affair, in America they end it.

Surely love is both work and wages.

In my own personal experience in my life, people that I argue with or have confrontations with are the people I love and care about the most. I wouldn't think to argue with somebody I couldn't give two s**ts about. There's no point in arguing if you don't care.

You're crazy. You're impossible.' 'I'm crazy?' He tipped my chin up and planted a quick, rough kiss on my mouth. 'And I must be crazy for putting up with it.

Conflicts are not a sign you've married the wrong person. They simply affirm you are human.

Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides.

men are so conceited they’ll believe anything that flatters them

Young love is so ridiculous, as is middle-aged and old love. And it's also hilarious. When have you ever felt so vulnerable and wonderful and terrible at the same time?

Which is more stubborn, the love or the two arguing people caught within it?

The bottom line in love is not whether someone loves you, but whether someone chooses you.